Saturday, 2 August 2014

PAPERLOVE

Recently I took part in a wonderful online course called Paperlove, ran by Rachel Hazell. I met others who shared my love for all things paper and I was so inspired by the creativity and ideas of others. So much, that I have booked to go on a residential course next April, but more about that another time. I am still working my way through the projects and a warm friendly group has developed on the forum, but what I wanted to show is a journal I made using a challenge to find papers that were easy to hand...

I love maps so one or two had to feature...

A page from a garden magazine, and a recipe I printed for Sparking Cucumber Water﻿.

The drink was delicious and a favourite in the hot weather we have been enjoying!

It's a fun to play with words and create new meaning

Another map! This page was folded to make a pocket on the reverse - great for slipping tickets, receipts, photos or notes into. This was the first book we made on the course and the pages were sewed together. I will have fun using it as a journal.

Something else I have enjoyed is seeing the happy mail that is being shared. One envelope is completing the whole distance - being passed from one person to another. Wow!! I wonder if we can work out how many miles it will have travelled to complete it's final journey! Meanwhile other letters are arriving and I did a happy dance this morning when one landed at my door. Just look at this!

A marbled paper envelope, hand folded, with a beautiful mini book inside. My day was made, receiving this! It was so thoughtful and beautifully done, thank you Helen!! These will not become pages in a future journal, I will think of a special way of keeping them so that like the commemorate theme, they will not be forgotten.

One of the other things we were invited to do on the course was to make a list of all the paper items we could see. I decided to do this while I was on a creative retreat last weekend as time offered more opportunity and here is what I found:

We are surrounded by so much paper every day, and so much of it just gets thrown away or sent for recycling. But there is lots of fun to be had, so if you like upcycling, recycling and sharing with others then you may be interested in a Junk Journal Swap that I am organising. Why not pop over to here and find out more?!

I just followed you over from a comment you made on Jenny Blair's blog & thought I'd pop by for a visit :-) Art swaps are fabulous fun - I am part of one at the moment called Magical Journal Journeys. We are in our third year and have formed a stong bond between participants. We were friends from before when we all worked on producing the Inspiration Avenue challenge and we all got to know each other in the back room (sort of like online staff room). But this past few years doing the journal swap has brought us even closer and has been a magical experience (hence us coming up with the group name last year). Good luck with your junk journal swap - it sounds a great idea. I am over committed at the moment so can't join in but will have to pop back to see how its going. I may have a go at your 5in 5 challenge soon though....Kat :-)

It great that you have formed such a friendly group for swapping, Kat. It sounds really exciting and a great thing to be part of.I hope you are able to join in 5 in 5 one day - I'd love to see your photos.